Donna Danna (7 Nov 2006)
"Rabbis To Place A Death Curse On Jerusalem Gay Parade Organizers"


Rabbis To Curse Jerusalem Gay Parade Organizers

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1162378339537&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
 
Haredi court mulls pulsa denura curse for gay parade leaders
 
The supreme rabbincal court of the ultra-Orthodox Eida Haredit may place a pulsa danura, a halakhic measure widely viewed as a death curse, on the organizers of the planned Gay Pride Parade and against "police who beat ultra-Orthodox Jews" protesting against the parade.

"The Rabbical Court has held a special session and discussed placing a pulsa danura on those who have a hand in organizing the march," Rabbi Shmuel Papenheim, editor of the Eida Haredit's weekly magazine "Ha'eidah" told Army Radio on Tuesday.

The curse could also be cast "against the policemen who beat ultra-Orthodox Jews," Papenheim added.

Pulsa denura - or "whip of fire" in Aramaic - is a curse with origins in Kabbalistic mysticism. It first came to light in Israel when far-right rabbis pronounced the curse on then-prime minister Yitzhak Rabin during the turbulent period that preceded his 1995 assassination.

The ceremony, which is supposed to cause the death of the subject within a year, calls upon the angels of destruction to refrain from forgiving the subject his sins, to kill him and to call down all the curses named in the Bible.

Religious far-rightists also pronounced the curse against Ariel Sharon in the run-up to the summer, 2005, disengagement from Gaza.

Leftist Meretz party Knesset faction chair Zehava Gal-On said that Papenheim's remarks constituted "incitement to murder."

Gal-On called on the police and the attorney-general to investigate those responsible for the pulsa danura discussion for possible criminal prosecution. "I recommend taking this with utmost seriousness, and to relate to this on the level of criminal offenses, not as just free speech."

"Brakes must be placed on free speech, when it is liable to turn dangerous, and we have seen that this is possible."

 
FULL STORY at
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/784883.html